Satwiksairaj and Chirag used lobs to good effect to enter final of Super 750 China Masters | Badminton News

Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty carry the undeniable reputation of snipers from a vantage: via the fiery down strokes and smashes for which the 6-and-up footers are known. But in their ever-expanding armoury is the backhand lob, which they used to repeatedly go over Chinese He Ji Ting and Ren Xiang Yu on Saturday to hand the home pairing a 21-15, 22-20 defeat in the semifinals of the Super 750 China Masters.Making their seventh final of the year, fourth on the Tour in 2023, India’s prolific finals and serial winners, rankedNo.5 now, will look to achieve yet another milestone — beating the Chinese in a China Tour event.
They were the only non-Chinese pairing amongst four men’s doubles semifinals at the Shenzhen Bay Gymnasium.
India’s foremost badminton names — Saina Nehwal, Kidambi Srikanth and PV Sindhu all have titles playing in China, with partisan crowds creating one right din. It’s now upto Satwik-Chirag to keep the trend going and nail down this one when they meet World No.1 Wei Keng Liang and Chang Wang in Sunday’s finals.

ONE STEP CLOSER 😍
4️⃣th final on #BWFWorldTour this year for SatChi 😎🔥
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— BAI Media (@BAI_Media) November 25, 2023
The Indians have shown tremendous versatility in playing styles, winning Swiss, Indonesian and Korean Opens, as well as towered over opponents winning Asian Games in different fashions. But this could well be the biggest tactical test of the year for the top seeds against the second seeded smiling assassins — Liang-Wang.
The Chinese, who won the India Open at the start of the year, play it cool, think on their feet, use the entire court, are not rattled offensive flurries and can counter punch against the attacking Indians. In the semis, Satwik-Chirag showed dexterity in responding to the parallel game, peppering the pauses in flat exchanges with the lethal lobs and the soft lifts. The finals might need a complete strategy overhaul.
Power comes in many varied expressions in badminton, the most visible being the smash. While Satwik finished off the 50 minute semifinal with a signature steep one, and Chirag was unforgiving from his round the head side of cross hits, both Indians lit up Saturday with the lobs, even as coach Pullela Gopichand roared “thoda dheere maarke usko pakadnaa hai.”
The power in the floaty lob that vaulted over the Chinese, came not from the shoulders, but the cocked wr that controlled the shuttle’s parabola tracing its path to fall just in front of the backline.
Chirag was the hungry pouncer and razor sharp scyther at the net as usual and the Chinese virtually fled from sending the shuttle to him, focussing on crowding Satwik instead. But it was the under-attack Satwik who found his way out of trouble, lunging at the forecourt, and swinging his racquet all the way to cut under the dipping shuttle and use those wrs to send it in an arc to the back court.

The Chinese were determined to gain ascendancy on the front court to ensure Chirag didn’t chomp into them.
But they needed to step forward to control the net, which meant they left gaping spaces in the back court.
At crucial moments, and after weathering the storm defensively with low sideways pickups, Satwik would tauten the wr, pick his spot on the back court and guide the shuttle high and deep to leave the Chinese stranded with his super lobs.
It was Chirag who first got into the act at the end of a 38 shot rally in the second set at 4-4, where he started converting even defenses into soft high lifts, the unhittable ones. The Indians had won the opening set 21-15 with Chirag stomping across in front of the net, but Ren Xiang Yu had strode forward to cut down Chirag’s angles in the second. The Chinese would take a 11-8 lead when the Indians got into the lobbing groove.
Both Chirag and Satwik would block on either flank bravely, but cut the pace on the high lifts and ins on ballooning the shuttle even when returning reflexively, like Chirag did at 9-11. The Chinese had once gone over the Indians earlier in the set, but Satwik-Chirag would then lob right back with vengeance. At 11-12, the Indians even found the sideline, leading to an unsuccessful review and silencing the chorusing Chinese crowd.
At 13-13, Satwik completed an exaggerated underhand swing of racquet even, to the same effect, and 15-14, the big man was toying with the Chinese footwork with excellent control over the rainbowing shuttle. The Chinese were late on the back-pedal.
When a good old fashioned no-nonsense smash gave the Indians a point at 16-15, realisation dawned about just how differently the Indians had been playing compared to their reputation as compulsive smashers.
At 18-17, the quartet would play the most exhilarating rally of the match. Both Indians had had enough of the Chinese resance, and unleashed a string of full-blooded smashes, which Ren-He scrambled to retrieve. The tempo of the rally was still quite aggressive and agitated, and the Indians were forced into defense when Satwik suddenly sent a peach of a floating lob into the rooflights to go 19-17 up.

In case if you missed another SatChi masterclass 🎬✨pic.twitter.com/1K082MKWMj
— BAI Media (@BAI_Media) November 25, 2023
Indians had won the first set, proving equal to the flat and criss cross exchanges. While the Chinese couldn’t straightaway counter Chirag’s interceptions, they resorted to pinning Satwik and drew out their fair share of errors.
Testing Chinese defence
The burly Indian wasn’t backing off, and tested Chinese defense around the hips and awkwardly into the ribs. The Chinese narrowed the 11-6 gap to 12-9, but fell back to 17-10 as Indian low defense on both flanks stood its ground. Chirag’s calm serve got the Indians the opener.
The Chinese would close out the gap playing their cross attack in the second and reach 20-20 after saving one match point. But Chirag found a drop from the net to go to 21-20. And then Satwik would convert a cross defense into another lob, following the harakiri-ing Chinese retrieve with a whling smash to reach the finals.
Satwik-Chirag won India its first Asian Games gold in China a month and a half back. But on Sunday, it will be a louder challenge, as the Chinese Liang-Wang seek revenge for their loss in the Asiad team event final.
Satwik-Chirag are yet to lose a final this year, though might need their best for the last, as they hope to take down the Chinese World No 1s. It’s not quite the World Cup, but the Shenzhen finals do pit China’s best against India’s finest in badminton, a week after cricket’s Sunday of Hurt.

Finals played & won Satwik-Chirag (6/6):
1. Swiss OpenBeat Ren Xiang Yu & Tan Qiang (China) 21-19, 24-22
2. Badminton Asia ChampionshipsBeat Ong Tew Sin & Teo Ee Yi (Malaysia) 16-21, 21-17, 21-19
3. Indonesia OpenBeat Aaron Chia & Soh Wooi Yik (Malaysia) 21-17, 21-18
4. Korea OpenBeat Fajar Alfian & Muhammad Rian Ardianto (Indonesia) 17-21, 21-13, 21-14
5. Asian Games (team event)Beat Weikeng Liang & Chang Wang (China) 21-15, 21-17
6. Asian Games (individual)Beat Choi Sol Gyu & Kim Won Ho (Korea) 21-18, 21-16